IT WAS to his native Scotland, and more specifically the fairways of his favourite golf course, that David Moyes retreated once the chaos of the transfer window’s final day had subsided.

The Everton manager admits he needed the time away from Merseyside, and his office in Finch Farm, to come to terms with what had been a hectic and ultimately unwelcome conclusion to the summer.

Moyes had been prepared to accept a ‘two in, two out’ scenario after selling Yakubu, and Jermaine Beckford, and recruiting Royston Drenthe and Denis Stracqualursi - but the late, late sale of Mikel Arteta had scuppered any sense of satisfaction.

Even if the Blues boss maintains it was his decision in the end, selling his playmaker still rankles with him as he prepares his squad to face Aston Villa amid a maelstrom of supporter unease and injury set-backs.

“When the window shut, I thought ‘this is what is happening, this is what I have got.’”, he says.

“It was difficult for a couple of days after it because reality hits home.

“I knew what it was going to be like, so I went golfing in Scotland. I cleared my head a bit and then came back to work. When I came to Everton, nobody ever told me that I would have lots of money to spend. I took the job and the chairman told me he would try and find me some money.

“The only thing I ever asked for when I came was ‘let me do what I want with the players and don’t take any of them away from me’. I tell you what, to this day the chairman has never broken his word.

“When I came in, I knew I wouldn’t be coming to work with money so why should I be banging on the door saying ‘hey, I need money’. That wasn’t the deal.

“Everton didn’t have a lot of money 10 years ago. The difference now is the expectation of the Everton supporters, which has risen dramatically. In truth, we have done that with using very little cash, wheeling and dealing, selling one biggie and trying to regenerate the cash, keeping it all going.

“In those 10 years, does anyone think that Everton could have done better than we have done? I think they would say probably not.”

As some supporters gather outside Goodison today to protest against what they perceive as stagnation at the club, Moyes begs to differ.

While he readily accepts their right to an opinion, and even understands their frustration, the Scot insists his stint at the Goodison helm have reaped progress.

“I do see now why people have got reason to complain,” he says. “Everton have been up there – how can they stay up there? How can they keep pushing further? That’s what everyone wants to do but it is going to be a difficult piece to get up.

“But the word I always use is progress. We have made progress over the years. I just want to ask myself ‘are we making progress?’

“Maybe this year you would say we are struggling at the moment but what we have got to do is somehow find another way around it.

“The chairman is trying to do that, I am and with the squad we have got. I am going to try and find another way of winning.

“Hopefully we will have a bit of good fortune that the lads we have brought in turn out to be a spark that ignites something.

“Undoubtedly we would have liked to have done different things. If I’d have had my own way, we would have done. I would have liked to have added to the squad but we didn’t.

“I don’t know whether stagnation is the word. In the 10 years I have been here, we have finished in the top 10 seven out of 10 times.

“Now if people actually think that Everton should be doing much better than that, then they need to be looking at things. Those positions at the minute for Everton are terrific. If you put it in to perspective, what we have had over the last 10 years has not been outrageously bad. Of course we want to be top of the league and winning cups.

“But at our club, we have got a level of finances, wages we can pay and stuff that we can do. We try and then get the best team and the best performances that we can out of the players that we have got.”

There was speculation linking Moyes with the top job at today’s opponents Villa before Alex McLeish arrived, but he refuses to be drawn on whether the grass could have been greener away from Merseyside.

“It is unfair for me to discuss other clubs, no way would I do that because I don’t know their situation,” he says.

“I will tell you 100 per cent as I am sitting here that I was never, ever asked. I can only talk about Everton. I know ours. We try to continue making progress and I am hoping that even at the end of this year we will have seen something. It might be a new young lad who gets into the team.

“Young players will get opportunities here. We have got Ross, Jack is a bit older. There are some other ones who will be given a chance to see what they can do.”